Joanne's Special Birthday in Edmonton

After leaving Seattle, we headed to Edmonton, Alberta to visit Jim's sister, Joanne, who had celebrated a special birthday (won't say which!) earlier in the month.

Joanne has a new cat, Birdie, who became my new fixation.

Joanne has done a lovely job in her yard with lots of perennial flowers...

And her new endeavour this year...a square foot garden. A great way to plant lots of different veggies, but not too much of each.

Beer can BBQ chicken...yum! This cracked me up...if only he had a head, the tales he could tell!

Love my new zoom! It was great for stalking Birdie...

Joanne borrowed bikes for us and we joined part of her bike club for a ride. We loved Joanne's decorative bike helmet. Now that's a princess! (After we got home, I saw a re-run of Dragon's Den and the lady who is marketing these. She has done very well! http://www.tail-wags.com/)

Part of our route that day...it was a beautiful day for a bike ride!

For Joanne's special birthday, she wanted to go to a restaurant called the Melting Pot. Unfortunately, they messed up our reservation and they couldn't fit us in when we arrived. Harrumph! Her next choice was this Ethiopian restaurant. We got this huge plate for sharing...

Which you eat with this bread. You unroll the bread and break off a piece and use it to pick up your food. Different...and very good! I called the bread "blanket bread" because it reminded me of those spongy-type blankets. It was very filling!

Our last night with Joanne; her daughter, Teresa; and her granddaughter, Zoe.

We had a wonderful visit...so relaxing. And then it was time to fly home. Look at the size of these farms!! Gotta love the Prairies!

Home again! I think we had been gone too long because a momma pigeon decided our balcony would be a great place to make her nest and lay an egg...

Thanks to our great family and friends for a wonderful trip!

Renewing Friendships in Seattle

Our lovely family cruise ended in Seattle and we were met at the pier by our friends, Nancy and Joe, who live in Seattle. We met them on our Africa cruise in 2010 and had kept in touch with them since then.

Our first stop was the Pike Place Market, which first started in 1907!


Here is the original Starbucks store right across the street from the market. Location, location, location!

All kinds of shopping and loads of people. We were glad it was early in the morning. Nancy scored a prime parking spot!

Lean on me...

Beautiful flowers at the market. I wanted to buy them all!

And more fresh fish than I have ever seen. I had no idea that is what a halibut looked like!

Pike Place Fish..."You buy them, we throw them." The look on the lady's face in red is not a happy one!

Uh, oh...yes, he is throwing it!

Duck...fish coming through!

Great catch! And a great tourist attraction...people surround their stall just to see them throw the fish.

After the market, we visited the Space Needle, which was built for the World's Fair in 1962.

As we were walking up the ramp to the elevator, we could see the Chihuly Garden and Glass complex.

Look at the glass art. His work is so recognizable. He also did the ceiling at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Amazing!

The view from the observation deck of the Space Needle...

The Museum of History and Industry...love the landscaping!

Here you can see the white arches of the Pacific Science Center.

Jim with Nancy and Joe in front of a beautiful blue bush. I still don't know the name of it!

Loved the roses...

And the hydrangeas...

And the yummy fish and chips we had for lunch!

The Seattle skyline...

The Golden Princess on the right getting ready to leave soon with its new load of passengers.

The next day we went for a drive to Whidbey Island about 30 miles north of Seattle. We stopped at Deception Pass for some photos and beautiful scenery.

It looks nice and calm but the current moves very swiftly here...

As we could see from the bridge...

Lots of whirlpools...

Loved this madrona tree...look at how smooth the trunk is. It doesn't look like it has any bark at all.

Here we are in Coupeville on Whidbey Island...

And this was the most amazing cafe. I wish I had thought to take pictures of the food. We had a turkey sandwich on huge slices of homemade bread and we left with enormous cinnamon buns to take home. OMG...the best ever!

On the side of the building were these knotholes...can you see the baby bird on the right poking his head out?

So cute! Look at the square heads on the nails...now that's old!

Awww...

Mama to the rescue with some food...

He still looked pretty lonely!

A patio next door...I could spend some time here!

The next day Nancy and I did a run to Macy's, while Jim went on a tour with Joe. Love the sign on the house!

These hedges were magnificent!

After lunch, a trip to the zoo...

Joe...what a character!

Giraffes...loving the zoom on my new camera!

A beautiful yellow bird...I have no idea what it is.

A zebra...

A couple of hippopotamuses...

A pata monkey...

A giraffe in a nice frame!

Two loving warthogs...

Off to Asia!

An Asian elephant...

This one only had one tusk...

Awww...this poor guy had his face smooshed up against the glass....

They actually had quite a big area to explore and play in...

Go monkey!

The zoo is so well done and well kept. Lots of statues showing the animals you were about to see...

Meerkats!

A Komodo dragon...

Look at their back legs...like hands facing backwards...

And, of course, some beautiful flowers!

Love my zoom! This tiger was not having much to do with anyone...

Yikes!

Awww...just like big kitty cats!

Penguins!

And flamingos that had themselves in a flap over something.

Look at the gorgeous colours and the stick legs!

We went to a restaurant that evening with a superb view overlooking the water and the skyline.

Thanks, Nancy and Joe! We had such a great time...

And now it's on to Edmonton to visit Jim's sister, Joanne!